Hans Van Eeghen
Hans Van Eeghen, also known as Black Swan, was Dharma's Head of Recruiting and the designer of the DharmaWantsYou.com tests. He was involved in a project run by his colleagues at Octagon Global Recruiting to find talented minds to join their voluntary scheme. On June 19th, an email was sent to those who had signed up on the company's website. Whilst informing about an event at Comic-Con 2008, it was noticeable that the email contained a carbon copy address to . On July 18th, another email from Octagon Global Recruiting identified Hans Van Eeghen's role with the DHARMA Initiative. Hans also appeared in person at Comic-Con, and showed a select few from the testing procedure a secret video, which was recorded by Dan Bronson and shown to attendees at the Lost panel. Since, Hans Van Eeghen has sent out a string of emails publicizing events surrounding the reconstituted Dharma Initiative and their new website, DharmaWantsYou.com. All his messages can be viewed at the Dharma correspondence page. Hans Van Eeghen created the Black Swan as a test to find out which recruits did and did not cheat on the tests. As of November 18 Hans announced that he has quit his job at DHARMA and suffers from a broken marriage, heavy casino debt and some unfounded police charges. He has a pending senior sales management job at a large multi-brand auto dealership in Dubai. Main references 06/19 email The full text of this email is also available at this page on the Octagon website. 07/18 email 11/18 email Comic-Con Hans Van Eeghen appears about halfway through this video, before the main Lost panel is underway. Here he announces the recruits that have passed the test and moved on to phase 2. Dan Bronson, one of the recruits that passed, is taken backstage to view an exclusive video not meant for anyone except the recruits to see. He is able to sneak a video camera and tape the secret video, which he then shows to fans at the Lost panel, after almost getting caught by Hans Van Eeghen. HLJ7bPpI8VM 08/08 email In response to the events of Comic-Con, Hans Van Eeghen issued the following statement: 09/03 video cMLsePC6-js 09/30 video During the video that explained Test 7 of the Project, Hans Van Eeghen revealed that he is the Black Swan, and he has been putting the cheats into the various Dharma Wants You assessments. 0qDSQexYOR0&fmt=18 Black Swan Black Swan was initially an unseen rogue presence during the Dharma Initiative Recruiting Project, but it was later revealed that he is Hans Van Eeghen. Hans Van Eeghen warned candidates about the Black Swan, saying that it was trying to undermine the testing program. Later, it was revealed that the Black Swan was actually Hans who used the alias in order to test the honesty and integrity of the recruits. The name "Black Swan" was first mentioned on the September 2nd video announcement as an individual who was trying to undermine the testing program by distributing cheats for the tests. In the same video, a static image of a swan was briefly visible. During Test 6, right-clicking on the test would list a menu that included an option labeled, "Black Swan". Choosing this would cause the correct answer to flash on the screen. In Test 7, Hans revealed that he was the Black Swan and was supplying the cheats in order to determine which of the volunteers were suitable for DHARMA Initiative by testing their honesty and integrity. The honest were assigned to the White Swan group, the dishonest were assigned to the Black Swan group. September 2nd video transcript Hijack It is possible that someone else has hijacked the persona of Black Swan from inside the Dharma initiative. During a video announcement released on September 10th, a data matrix was shown of an anagram of the name "Mittlewerk." Trivia General *The Swan is a DHARMA Initiative station whose logo features a swan. * Hans Van Eeghen is played by Wolf Muser, who fans of Alias will remember as Alliance Member Ramon Veloso in 5 episodes. * Hans shares his last name with Henk Van Eeghen, an editor on Lost. * "Gene Haven" (or Haven Gene) is a noteworthy anagram of Van Eeghen. * The Van Eeghen Group is one of the oldest family owned businesses in the world, mainly working in the industry of processing, trading and distributing food ingredients. * The Van Eeghen Group is a member of a very exclusive club, The Henokiens *The casting call for the character was: Must have an accent - could be Dutch or Scandinavian, late 30s to early 60s. A smart, rigorous scientist, outspoken, determined with a sharp sense of the greater purpose to his life. He has struggled to bring back a respected scientific research group that had fallen into disrepute, and now is trying hard to staff it with the best possible people. http://lostoctagonglobalrecruiting.blogspot.com/2008/07/casting-calls.html Recurring themes * Candidates were assigned to either the black or white swan groups. * Candidates were labeled as either honest or dishonest recruits. * Hans used an alias and deceived the recruits. Cultural references * Cygnus the swan is a constellation and character in Greek Mythology. Literary references * The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: Nassim Nicholas Taleb's book is a study of uncertainty and randomness. The book is centred around the black swan theory, which focuses on large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event that is beyond the realm of normal expectations. The book also has a chapter about a character called "Yevgenia" who rejects the distinction between fiction and non-fiction. This is something that the characters of 'Lost' and the players of the ARG must do as they interact with the DHARMA Initiative. de:Hans Van Eeghen es:Hans Van Eeghen fr:Hans Van Eeghen pt:Hans Van Eeghen